


Insurance

by LizRambler



Series: Sleepovers [12]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:21:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22856152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizRambler/pseuds/LizRambler
Summary: Rose comes home from work and catches the Doctor working on a surprising device.
Relationships: Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Sleepovers [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1531835
Comments: 9
Kudos: 62





	Insurance

Rose was exhausted. It had been a long day and she had to face it on her own. The Doctor hadn’t gone into work. Even though his migraines had gone from life-threatening to regular, they were still migraines and happening on a regular basis. Rose had wanted to do more tests. They were currently looking for a doctor with a little 'd’ that they could trust. Very few people knew his true alien nature at work. The Doctor wasn’t worried. He seemed to think it was all the human parts of his biology not knowing what to do to process all the magnificent-his word, not hers- Timelord parts of his biology. 

He had tried to explain it to her and he’d used big words, so many big words. Rose had known most of them but had never heard any of them in that particular order before. What it had come down to was “the mind link would have to do until the baby Tardis was big enough to help out.” The mind link they had formed, a marriage bond he called it, let her feel a bit of his surface emotions but only when he was near or touching her. The rest of the time it was a lot like when they were out of the Tardis. She knew he was there somewhere out in the world. The closer she got to him the more it felt like a gentle pull in his direction. She could head straight toward him from anywhere in London now. Useful little side effect since he was always wandering off.

The morning had been fun. Rose had spent a few hours negotiating with a species of alien dolphin for a new water purifier in exchange for a hold full of fish. She had been disappointed that the Doctor hadn’t gotten a chance to speak with them. He would have gotten a kick out of their EVA suits. They looked like giant bubbles full of violet water. Lunch with Mum has been taxing and the beginning of her own headache. Tony had entered a talking back phase. 

“He’s exactly like you were at that age,” Jackie had complained while putting an extra portion of the terrible chips on Rose’s plate. Rose sighed. “What? You used to love ‘em?”

“I’ve told you a million times, they’re rubbish here. S’like they’re full of sand. The ones before tasted like heaven. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, silky, not silty. S’gross, that’s all.”

“You’re just sour because they gave that contact mission to Jake instead of you,” Jackie had replied. “You’d think you’d saved the world enough to want a break.”

Rose hadn’t wanted to argue when her mother was right. There was a ship off the coast of New York. Jake’s team had gotten the go-ahead instead of hers. Now she was stuck spending the rest of the day filling out more reports from last week’s diplomatic meeting. Apparently writing, “The Doctor sorted their broken spaceship and I brokered a treaty by teaching them UNO,” was not enough for some people. “Yeah, world-saving doesn’t work like that… Sort of ongoing.”

“What about getting married?” Jackie asked. “When’s that happening?”

She trudged back to her building. The Doctor had bought them a few flats a month ago in an attempt to woo her away from the mansion. Little did he guess, she was ripe for wooing. Jackie was a wonderful mum but not great for her daughter’s romance if lunch was anything to go by. And there was no way on this or any other Earth she was telling her mum that according to his people, Rose and the Doctor were already married. Nope. She was leaving that to him. Rose sighed. 

Rose hadn’t even seen the other ones yet. After their first night in this one, she had been sold. She grinned. She and the Doctor were planning to let the other flats cheaply to art and science majors to give them a leg up. The Doctor loved the idea of helping young adults get their start.

She took the elevator. Pulling the elastic out of her hair, she felt some of the tension release. She was going to have a glass of wine, no, something harder. The Doctor liked to play bartender. Mm, she hoped he was feeling better. It was his turn to cook. If not, it was takeaway time. She was thinking pizza. 

The short walk down the hallway was forever in her heels, so she took them off. Once inside, she called out to him. He didn’t answer. Rose knew he was in the flat. Not only was he in the flat but he had been up and about recently. There was a new two-level terrarium with Reggie the hedgehog in it. She waved to him. His bright eyes watched her merrily.

A pizza sat half-eaten on the counter. Cheering, Rose grabbed a slice on her way by. That was dinner taken care of, good Doctor.

He wasn’t in his workshop/office. That left the master bedroom or the roof garden. Rose wasn’t climbing the steps tonight without good reason. A shaft of blue light escaped the bedroom along with a familiar whirring. Bingo. Rose pushed the door open and smirked.

The Doctor was sitting cross-legged on the bed amongst the laundry. It was obvious that he had been halfway through folding it when inspiration struck. His brow was slightly sweaty. Parts of tech were strewn over his fresh pants and t-shirts. The sonic was in his mouth and he was delicately sliding tubes of dark red/orange liquid into slots. Rose blinked.

“Is that your blood?” she asked.

“Gah!” the Doctor’s mouth opened and the sonic fell onto the bed. He held the box like he was going to chuck it away from himself or hide it and paused knowing how she’d feel about that. His emotions went from sort of resting to adrenaline-soaked in seconds. Rose got a second-hand jolt of adrenaline. “Wh-when did you get home?”

Rose placed her slice of half-eaten pizza on an empty plate sitting on her nightstand. “Is it?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, yep, that’s my blood,” he agreed. “You look exhausted. Tough day? I ah, ordered pizza… and you know that.” The Doctor trailed off, still holding the box as if it were made of snakes.

Rose drifted closer. “What have you got there?”

“Oh erm, this? I don’t suppose you might want to--and this is purely a hypothetical question--go out and come back in?” He glanced around shiftily as if hunting for a hiding space.

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you there and assume you were feeling better, decided to order us dinner and do all the laundry. Then halfway through folding your pants, you came up with a mad scheme that you aren’t sure I’ll like. And I caught you at it,” Rose said, “am I close?”

He made a face. “Entirely too close. It’s not a bad thing,” he said indicating the box. 

“A box with blood in it?” Rose asked grabbing the shirts that had been folded and taking them to the bureau before they were hopelessly wrinkled. “How is a box of blood not a bad thing? And when did you find time to build Reggie a terrarium?”

“Vivarium,” he corrected. “With your help simple caffeine and Doctor-friendly painkillers make the headaches go away in under an hour. It makes me a bit shaky for a while afterward I’m right as rain. It’s a considerable improvement, don’t you think?”

“And so, you built a terrarium?” Rose asked. “Instead of coming in to work.”

“Well, yes. But in my defense, work is very boring. Pete rarely lets us take the lead on the fun missions. And it’s a vivarium, not a terrarium. It’s a bioactive enclosure. I’ve been cultivating the worms for it for weeks in the Tardis substrate. Not to mention the lice I’ve been growing in my office at work…” The Doctor was surreptitiously moving the box behind him. 

“LICE?”

“Temperate lice,” he replied as if that explained anything. 

“Wait, where did you get the plants?” 

“Nowhere.” He lied.

“Did you steal the plants?” Rose asked as she folded the remainder of the T-shirts for him.

“I stole the plants.”

“From my mum’s garden? You did! You set off the burglar alarm! The police came,” Rose told him, laughing. “She’s gonna be furious. Ah, the things we do for Reggie.”

He beamed. “It had to be nice. Poor guy spent years in a pocket.”

Rose sat down on the bed. “Is it too much to hope you did my laundry too?”

“Yeah ‘course. You hate laundry. Yours is all done and away. Got distracted halfway through mine…” The Doctor placed the box down for a minute, huffing.

“How did that happen again?” 

“Martha’s friend Matthew or Mathias? Or Mark? Big strapping fellow said he saw a hamster glowing in Portobello’s… We, well, er, I was bored, so we checked it out. Martha and I camped out overnight in the pet shop.”

“Martha must have been thrilled. Did you bring the sleeping bags?” Rose asked feeling a frizzle of jealousy. Sleepovers were their thing. 

“Nah, I wasn’t sleeping much or at all then. Made me a bit,” he waved a hand about vaguely, “Martha made a big giant bed out of the dog beds. So, she starts snoring. It’s adorable. I may or may not have been playing with the guinea pigs when around two AM all the gerbils and hamsters start glowing green. Martha took a video with her camera! Oh, I wish I had that video. They were glowing like anything! Bless ‘em. Adorable!”

“Were they aliens?” Rose asked, imagining the little glowy rodents.

“Nah, well, yes, well, no, they had been spliced with a Pakhar which is an alien and a bioluminescent lichen. No idea why. But the Pakhar Hamsters were too sentient to live in a pet shop on Earth only to get all parcelled out to children. Poor little fellas. We took them to a nice planet with a perfect environment for them. Reggie erm, we weren’t sure about him. So Martha popped him into my pocket for later… The hamster planet wasn’t quite right for our boy Reg, so he stayed in my pocket,” the Doctor said. “Things got a bit busy and here we are with a pet! How domestic is that? He might even glow in the dark.”

“Really?” 

“No, probably not.” 

“Shame. Could have been all the rage here,” Rose reached behind him and snagged the box.

He protested. Rose ignored him, examining the box. It was glowing faintly blue. She turned it over in her hands. “S’got a memory matrix in it.”

The Doctor nodded. 

“What’s it need blood for?” Rose tapped the side and all four sides opened revealing four tubes of the Doctor’s blood. “Are these the samples UNIT took?”

“Yep. Couldn’t let them keep that blood.” His emotions were shifting. Rose eyed him. “Special. That blood. It was from when I was new. Now I’m all not new. That’s New Me in a tube.”

“DNA? And a memory matrix?”

He nodded and she felt his nerves. “It’s not ready yet. It’s meant for Christmas.”

“That’s months away. And this is a weird present. I was going to get you a friend for Reggie.”

“Aw! Why did you go and spoil the surprise?” the Doctor protested.

“So you’ll tell me what this is.” Rose resisted the urge to shake the box.

The Doctor’s mouth worked for a moment while his mind shifted and shifted. “Well, now I have one less good secret. Also, I wasn’t sure how you would… whether you would… I’ll get rid of it. It’s stupid. You won’t like it.”

That was fine. He could be as cagey as he wanted to be. Rose would figure it out on her own. She touched another panel and instructions lit up in gold swirly Gallifreyan letters. There was a red button nestled in the center of the word for ‘go.’ “DNA, plus a memory matrix and instructions only in Gallifreyan…” Plus the box in her hands tingled. “Artron energy? Doctor...is this a--is it something to do with regeneration?” 

“You’re afraid,” the Doctor murmured, reaching out to take the box from her. “Why? I’ve regenerated before. Why would you be afraid of that? And… it’s not. Well, it isn’t exactly that.”

“Are you sick? Are you dying?” Rose felt tears welling up in her eyes.

The Doctor put the box down and pulled her bodily into his lap. “No, no, no, no. I’m fine. That little weasel Owen ran tests after my collapse. He’s not a good doctor. But I examined all the raw data myself. I’m in tiptop shape, for an aging mortal… I’m perfect. Molto bene!”

“Then…” Rose pulled back. “What-?”

“It’s just in case, it’s insurance, it’s a backup plan. I don’t have to have it… Remember when I fixed the Lukens ship? Or maybe you don’t since you were too busy teaching them the cheaters’ version of UNO…”

“I brokered two treaties with that deck of cards so far,” Rose protested. 

“Yes, Mattel™ is probably very proud of itself. Well, when I singed my fingers hooking that coupling to the new power converter, I thought about a few things. Well, I thought about a few thousand things but I realized two important things: I’m not immortal anymore. And the second was just as terrifying: What if you were augmented by Bad Wolf?”

“What? Like Jack?” Rose tried to remember if she had been seriously injured since then… Her cuts and scrapes had been healing at a normal rate, hadn’t they?

“Oh, not in any wild or scary ways but you were connected to a Tardis that didn’t kill you. Impossible. She lives for millennia and I wondered since she was so fond of you if she might have extended your life. Then I got very upset thinking that you might outlive me because of it or my own stupidity and I built the box.” 

Rose sniffed. “You thought about all that while I was playing UNO?”

The Doctor shrugged. “Timelord.”

“Being a Timelord seems annoying.”

“It is,” he agreed, “very annoying.”

“What does it do?” Rose asked.

“Nothing yet needs a Tardis to work.”

“What will it do?” Rose asked, slightly exasperated.

“Oh, see, that’s the brilliant part!” He gushed. “Once we have a working Tardis, we plop this thing into the center console. If I get… erm, well, if the worst were to happen, I’ll awake on the Tardis safe and sound.” He clapped his hands together, beaming at her.

“Like a transmatt?” Rose asked but no, she knew that couldn’t be it or he wouldn’t need DNA. “Oh no… It clones you.”

“Oh yes.” He bobbed his head.

“That’s insane. So you die and I get a replacement like a pet goldfish?” Rose felt her blood heating up. 

“No, of course not,” the Doctor protested. “The matrix will update my memories every time we sleep. If the worst were to happen, it would be more like a ‘save point’ in a video game. I’d be fine. I wouldn’t even remember dying. And you wouldn’t be alone.”

Rose was overwhelmed. “And what if the worst happens to both of us?”

“Oh, hm, well, if you aren’t there, the box won’t activate.” His smile faded to a grim line. “I don’t want to get left alone.” 

“This is what you wanted to give me for Christmas?” Rose took a deep breath.

He fidgeted unable to process her complicated emotions as Rose decided between wanting to kiss him for being so sweet and wanting to smack him for scaring her and potentially scarring future her. “I could get you a scarf?”

Rose sighed. She grabbed her half-eaten slice of pizza and went in search of a shower. When she returned the bed was pristine. All the laundry was gone. The box was gone. The Doctor was pensive, reading a knitting magazine with his glasses perched on the end of his nose. Rose climbed into the bed next to him. “I like the vivarium,” she offered, “I took a closer look and Reggie does seem to be glowing a bit pink. Could be alien DNA or he might just be happy…”

The Doctor closed his magazine. “UV light maybe?”

“Oh go on, he’s an alien hedgehog,” Rose insisted. “Think Mum is the reason we’re getting the easy missions.”

“Oh?” He took his glasses off and slid down next to her. “Because of my migraines?”

“M’not sure. She did complain about how often I’ve had to save the world.”

“Oi! I’ve helped! On that last one...with the ship and the... I definitely did stuff!”

“You’re very heroic. Think she’s probably sick of how often we have to save the world. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it.”

He smirked.

“That box…” she began.

The smirk slid off his face. “Forget it. Stupid idea. I’ll just-”

“Is there room for my blood too? My memories?”

The Doctor stalled out. “I thought you didn’t-”

“Yeah, well, I was thinking about it in the shower. Remember that time I fell off the tree on Ck’ee? If I hadn’t landed in that bush…” Rose trailed off. She had sat in that bush for an hour on the edge of a sheer cliff face. She had had plenty of time to contemplate death. “Or when I was turned into some water breathing egg incubator? Luring people to drown? Or when I made friends with a Dalek? ”

“Don’t remind me.” The Doctor’s tone turned stormy and faintly Northern.

“Who was it said I was jeopardy friendly?” She rolled onto her side to face him.

“Not me, I would never say such a true statement,” he teased. 

“Anyhow, I think about it. I think about what happens to you if I don’t make it.”

“I can tell you from experience that I don’t do very well,” he murmured.

“So, can you clone me too? If the worst happens… Memories and all. I want a save point too, for you. S’like insurance on our forever.”

“Yeah ‘course I can.” The depth of emotions swirling in his eyes made Rose want to cry. She kissed him instead. He responded favorably by rolling onto his back and pulling her on top of him. Rose adjusted to the new position by moving her hands into his hair. She kissed him leisurely letting the emotions swirl around them. Affection was quickly replacing melancholy in the Doctor’s mind and Rose was too tired to do anything but skip to lust. One of these days she was going to convince him to try doing it the human way alongside the Gallifreyan way. He was still keeping things separate. 

In the morning, the Doctor had two long needles and several balls of bright wool. He had made her breakfast and it sat on the nightstand smelling of fresh tea. He had several neat rows of stitches and the beginning of a cable knit scarf. When she opened her eyes, he tried to surreptitiously shove it behind his back. Rose snorted.

“Do you still want that scarf? Because I think I remember how to knit.” 

“Sure, everyone loves a nice warm scarf,” she muttered. “Guess I have to think of something else to get you since I ruined the surprise.” Rose stretched far enough to grab the cup of tea.

“No, that’s alright,” he said quickly.

“Don’t you want it to be a surprise?” Rose asked as she sipped life-giving caffeine into her system. “And a nice surprise, not a nasty surprise like, ‘I’ve been raising worms in the spare bathroom.”

“That was a nice surprise… for Reggie.” 

“You really want another hedgehog, don’t you?” 

“Yes...Reggie’s lonely. He needs a friend.” the Doctor was still trying to hide the obvious evidence of his late-night/early morning knitting.

“Yeah alright, but I want mittens too.” 

“Oh, a challenge! Where are my circular needles?”


End file.
